Anniversary tours have become very popular over the last few years, with bands giving the fans the chance to hear full albums in a live show, often giving rarely heard tracks and more obscure tracks an airing. Following on from the successful “Earth vs The Wildhearts” 20th anniversary show back in 2013, Ginger reunited the band for a short tour celebrating 20 years of their sophomore release “PHUQ.”

First up, the new look Hey! Hello! With a new vocalist in the shape of the Love Zombies’ Hollis J, the band played a half hour set of tracks from their debut album that went down a storm with the early attendees. Also thrown into the set, was a great version of ‘Honour’, a song Ginger did with Courtney Love, and a new track in ‘Don’t Stop Loving The Music’. I originally thought they might struggle to replace he energy that former vocalist Victoria brought to the band, but that wasn’t an issue at all. With news of upcoming tours and a new album currently being worked on, it appears that this may become one of Ginger‘s more prominent projects over the next few years, and they follow the path set by the headliners in a perfect way, with plenty of huge hooks and singalong chorus, melodic yet offering a bit of edge with his unique lyrical style. This band should be huge, and will be interesting to see how they do.

Next up, and giving Ginger a bit of a breather between sets was the reunited Baby Chaos. With a long gap of nearly 17 years since they last recorded and toured, the Glaswegian four piece show no signs of rust and looked just as good as the last time I saw them, back in the day (possibly supporting The Wildhearts, if I remember rightly). A great performance, another example, like the headliners of a band which should have been much bigger during their heyday and here’s hoping that the upcoming album will give the band a boost, and looking forward to seeing them again in the future soon.

Finally it was time for the headliners, and the evening took on a familiar look, with the band playing the album in full, before returning for a second set of classics and some more obscure tracks. With the bands energy and enthusiasm for the music, it’s never anything less than an excellent night in their company and this is further proof of that. From the moment that ‘I Wanna Go…’ started the band and crowd were feeding off each other and the noise and atmosphere was electric. The only downside to the evening was a fight that broke out at the front, causing the band to abandon ‘Nita Nitro’, before Ginger said “I never liked the end of that track anyway’ instantly easing the tension as they instigator of the fight was lead out of the venue. The first set raced through and the second set, which was different every night of the tour, maybe surpassed the first. From the huge sounding ‘Everlone’ to the quieter, yet almost total audience participation during ‘Geordie In Wonderland’, this evening proved, once again, how great this band are, how broad their catalogue and how much they are missed. It would be great to hear new music from them, but that now seems unlikely, however, one of these tours every couple of years would be a decent enough substitution. A great show, other bands need to up their game, my list of favourite shows is being dominated by Wildhearts gigs.

Hey! Hello! Setlist:

Black Valentine – Feral Days – Honour – Lock For Rock (And Other Sporting Cliches) – Burn The Rule Book (Fuck It) – The Thrill Of I All – Don’t Stop Loving The Music – Swimwear

Baby Chaos Setlist:

She’s In Pain – Blackbirds – Go To Hell – Have Faith In Yourself – You Cant Shut Us Up – Love Your Self Abuse – A Bullet For The End – We Were Youth – Pink – Risk And Writhing – Sperm